ANALYTICAL HYDROLOGICAL MODELLING FOR WADI AL HASA CATCHMENT AREA - JORDAN

Wadi Al Hasa catchment is prone to flash flooding by heavy precipitation during the winter season. The geomorphological settings of this catchment is extremely heterogeneous as a result of different underline geological structures of the Dead Sea basin. The geomorphological heterogeneities control the drainage networks density and directions and hence control the spatial distribution of flash flooding strength and direction over the catchment too. Therefore, understanding the geomorpholgical setting of the catchemnt has a special importance in order to understand flash flooding. Automated generation of drainage networks from digital elevation models (DEMs) is a powerful analytical function in geographic information systems (GIS). Remote sensing methods offer a vast array of DEMs with different resolutions to choose from. Therefore, an integrated approach that combines remote sensing and GIS could be used to generate an analytical hydrological and investigate the influence of geomorphology on the hydrological cycle. We found that the overlay method in GIS could be an analytical tool for groundwater recharge estimation and geo-visualization.